Ending the War: Sorcerers Stone
by Eragon Eli Potter
Summary: This is my version of "the characters read the book". All cannon. An effort by Albus Potter to stop the war.
1. Prolouge

**A/N: Well this is the first of my Reading the Books series. I plan on doing all seven and then a story that follows how they change the future. **

**Disclaimer: Every thing you recognize is J.K Rowling's. I don't own a thing. I just play in her sandbox. **

**2020 Potter Cottage, Outside Godric's Hollow**

"Hey Al," started Ginny Potter. "You've been working on that for months! Don't you think it's become a bit of an obsession?" she asked her middle child. Albus Severus Potter had been working on a spell. It was a very complicated spell to cast, but with a simple purpose. He wanted to change the future.

Actually, he wanted to change the future of the people around whom the spell was being cast. He was doing this to save many people from Sirius Black to Colin Creevy. He was going to give the knowledge of a war to those in the past.

However, he was also doing it so a generation of children could meet their grandparents (and parents when they were young. He was essentially tempting fate by creating two different timelines.

"Mum, I got it! Here I go: _Tempus Stamen Volutpat!_" Al yelled. He had created a portal. He quickly called his cousins and siblings and they all went through.

O.o.O.o.O

**1977 Hogwarts, Gryffindor Common Room**

"Look, Lily-kins, it all makes sense! It had to be Snivellus that did it! That's why I made his hair pink! Beside's I thought you weren't even friends with him any more?" finished James Potter.

"Hush you two, enough with your bickering! There's some sort of black hole right there!" yelled Remus Lupin.

"Ooh, let's go in it!" yelled Sirius Black.

"Sirius," started Frank Longbottom and Alice Jones. But the marauder didn't listen. So they all followed him as you would expect from a few 17 year olds.

O.o.O.o.O

**1977 HQ of the Order of the Phoenix**

They were arguing over infiltration. Some of them wanted to have someone to and join Voldemort and give them information. But all argument stopped when they were sucked into a hole in the middle of the table they were sitting around.

**1998 King's Cross Station (Limbo)**

The former Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore had called many people for a meeting. They included the Lupins, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevy, Dobby the House Elf, Emmeline Vance (She was Sirius' "girlfriend").

"Why has the great sir asked us here?" asked Dobby.

"I have called you all here, because a boy in our future has brought together many important people from our past, present, and future. They are meeting now in the Great Hall. I am giving you all a chance, on behalf of Fate, to return to the land of the living. He thinks that while tampering with Time and Life is wrong Tom Riddle has been so evil that it maybe necessary. Use it wisely," said Dumbledore. They were all overjoyed. Though they may be having a good time, it was no fun without the ones they loved. They would gladly take all of life's problems to be with those they loved. A door appeared and they all walked through.

**1998 Great Hall, Hogwarts (A few hours after the final battle)**

Most everyone had gone home. The few that remained were members of the Weasley family, the DA, or the Order of the Phoenix. However, there were also the Professors and Draco Malfoy. They were all quiet and calm. In one corner, Harry Potter rested on Ginny Weasley's lap. Similarly, Hermione Granger rested on Ron Weasley's shoulder. Everyone looked up as at the front of the room, a portal opened, and out stepped many people who had died recently. Shouts of disbelief, '_Sirius!_', '**Fred!' **and others were heard around the room. But none were as loud as Professor McGonagall's shout of '**ALBUS!**' As they got reacquainted with those in the room, Harry quietly walked up to Severus Snape (After talking to the Marauders and their companions) and said two words that made a world of difference to Snape: "Thank you." These words made his life much better. Most were happy and comfortable when Luna Lovegood asked:

"I hope I'm not intruding, but how is it that you are all back?" She was about to be responded when three other portals opened at the front of the rooms.

**A/N 2: Well, sorry to cut off here, but this seems like a nice place to stop. Please R&R! Oh, and this story might be taken off, so here is a link to a Wattpad I created.**

** /Potterthekid**


	2. Acquaintence and Reacquaintence

**A/N: Well, people like this story as well! Here is the second chapter. Thanks to my beta makesmyheartgoboomboom. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

_"I hope I'm not intruding, but how is it that you are all back?" She was about to be responded when three other portals opened at the front of the rooms._

Out of the first stepped some of the Order of the Phoenix during the first war. They were greeted by their counterparts of the second war enthusiastically. Out of the last stepped some people that look suspiciously like the Weasleys and Harry. Finally, out of the middle portal stepped some people that Harry never thought he would see alive along with a pair of people that Neville thought he would see sane: The Marauders, Lily, and the Longbottoms. Harry ran like a little boy to the Christmas tree and yelled (rather loudly):

"Mum, Dad, I can't believe that you're alive! I love you so much! I'm never, ever going to let you guys go again." Now, the future Potters were rather surprised and overwhelmed, as anyone would be if they just found out that they had a seventeen year- old son when they weren't even married. Soon everyone was acquainted and then tactlessly Ron asked:

"Um, excuse the language but who the hell are you people?" he asked the unknown group. They were responded by a boy that looked almost like a carbon copy of Harry with red hair, who said:

"Well… there really is no other way to say it, but we're from the future. My name is Albus. My friends call me Al, and I am the one who brought us all here. I would really like to stop the war. That is why I brought seven books that explain Dad's-err- Harry Potter's life," said Albus. A loud groan was heard from Harry followed by a series of chuckles and giggles from those of his time. They knew how much he hated people finding out about his life. The slip by Albus was caught by Hermione. She was onto him now.

"Well, we don't really want to ruin who our parents are, and everyone else won't, but we'll tell you our names anyway. You all know my name, and since I look like his twin with red hair anyway, I'm Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley's second son. I'm in Gryffindor House, third year. I became the seeker for my Quidditch Team in first year. Minnie-err- Professor McGonagall removed the rule after she saw my skills, my best friends are Scorpious and Rose," he motioned to the two he mentioned. Harry and Ginny were overjoyed at hearing this. Harry especially was happy that there was proof that he would live a life. Dumbledore looked at Harry and said:

"I am humbled that you would name one of your sons after me." He was answered by a collective response by the D.A. who said that he was their inspiration. Soon, all of the "future" kids explained who they were except one "Hey, they name is Scorpious-err-Malfoy," before he could finish, the two Siriuses, Ron, and the twins all yelled a variation of 'what the bloody hell is he doing with our family?!'But they were silenced by Harry. He motioned for Scorpious to continue.

"I am in Gryffindor House (he looked nervously at Draco when he said this) and I am best friends with Al, and Rose is my…" he paused. 'My girlfriend," he finished. There was silence for minute, and then there was a sound of a thump. Ron had fainted. He simply could not believe that a Malfoy was dating a Weasley. How ironic that he would later find that Rose was his daughter. Draco said:

"I'm proud of you son, for being the one to break the tradition." Everyone from all times was shocked- except Harry and Albus.

Ginny then said:

"Well, Al, James, and Lily why don't you come sit with Harry and me. It's obvious you are all our children. I'm curious, what are your middle names?" she finished. While the three of them just walked over to them, the answered:

"Severus," said Al. This was followed by Ron fainting again.

"Luna," said Lily. Luna smiled at her.

"AND SIRIUS!" yelled James. Every single Professor fainted. All the Marauders jumped with joy at this. They now knew that James and Fred II would be perfect heirs to their legacy Soon, everyone calmed down and Al said:

"Well, I'll start reading, OK?" Most everyone consented and he began.

"The first book is called:

**Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone**

**A/N: Well, I'll have the next one up soon! It'll be on Wattpad soon as well. The next Chapter for BTTH is on hold. I'll get it up by Friday.**


	3. The Boy Who Lived

**A/N: … I'm sorry... Please don't kill me… life got in the way… so I couldn't update… (This is un-betaed, I tried sending her this, but she didn't respond. To said beta: **_**If you are reading this than please pm me!**_**)**

**Warning: The next generation won't talk much here, but they will have greater involvement starting next chapter. There will also be a lot more dialogue then too.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling, 'nuff said.**

"**Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's** **Stone" **began Headmaster Dumbledore. The "Golden Trio" smiled.

**The Boy Who Lived**,

Harry's smile dropped, and most everyone laughed at the discomfort he felt about his title.

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley,**

"Why do we start with these unpleasant people first, I thought it was about my godson," grumbled Sirius.

"You! You're a wanted criminal!" yelled Percy

"Yeah, and you are a damn family deserting, ministry loving twit! I personally consider that a greater crime than what Sirius is accused of and you aren't in Azkaban!" yelled Ron.

Oddly enough, there wasn't the usual yell of "language!" from his mother. The Headmaster continued:

**Of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

This was followed by a series of giggles and laughs initiated by the recently reunited Weasley twins. Their uncles looked at them oddly. Meanwhile many of the Next Generation asked the Potter children why people were making fun of their Uncle Dudley's family. Al was the only one with an answer, but he kept quiet.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

This was answered with more laughs.

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache.**

By now, most of the people were laughing their heads off, including the Marauders.

**Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

Lily Evans than said, "So she hasn't changed a bit then, has she?" Now the entire Great Hall (including Dumbledore) exploded with laughter.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

This put Harry in thought. The last time he had met Dudley, he had seemed to have changed. It was as though he was thankful to Harry for saving him. This time, Al was smiling to himself. His Uncle Dudley was a great man. He helped his father in managing his investments in the muggle world, and taught the Potter kids some great things.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"So are these people related to you Harry?" someone asked. He was answered by Lily and Molly's muttering.

"I wish he wasn't…"

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

A Ravenclaw responded by asking whether that was even a word. Laughter immediately resumed. But in a corner, Lily and Harry were saddened by this.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

Almost the entire hall erupted in a shout of: "What do you mean a child like that?!" however, next to all of the Potters, both Sirius's sat fuming. Their godson was the best and they knew it.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.**

The past (and some of the future) all wondered what the heck was going on. Hermione and some Ravenclaws already knew what had happened.

**Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"Not a very pleasant family them is it?" asked Fred II. Everyone laughed.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window. At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house.**

"Little Tyke, I say spoiled brat!" exclaimed the resident mothers.

**He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map.**

Sirius Jr. yelled out, "I'll bet anyone five galleons that it's Minnie!" No one dared to take him on.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light.**

This was followed by laughter.

**Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, **_**looking **_**at the sign; cats couldn't read maps **_**or **_**signs.**

"Unless they're an animagus!" yelled another Ravenclaw. Everyone rolled their eyes at her.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"Wizards!" James exclaimed. "But their breaking the Statue of Secrecy." By now, most of the present, dead, and future had realized what had happened.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.**

Now the Past were the only ones left out of the loop.

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes that would be it.**

Now people were getting real serious so, when the marauders saw that no one else was laughing they felt odd.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **_**He **_**didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.**

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy him a bun from the bakery.**

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy.**

**This bunch was whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard —"**

"— **yes, their son, Harry —"**

"Why would ordinary wizards talk about us like that?" James asked Lily. Lily responded by shushing him.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

Harry face was drained of color. This was not the time for expressions like this.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone,** **and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.**

All the pranksters and jokers said "Well, when are you not?" When no laughs were received, Fred said "Just trying to lighten up the mood." Everyone who was at the Dursley's to transport Harry to the Burrow, laughed. No one else got the joke.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was **_**called Harry.**

"That is completely inconsiderate!' yelled Molly.

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

Molly continued to rage. Lily just accepted that her sister and brother-in-law were like that.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if **_**he'd **_**had a sister like that…**

"Like what you overgrown walrus? You never even knew her! You never even told me her name!" yelled Harry full of rage. Ginny calmed him down easily.

**But all the same, those people in cloaks…**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"**Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!" And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"Dedalus," was all that came out of many of the Order's mouths. He had not made it.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

**It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

**"Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"That's how Minnie always looks," said Sirius.

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered.**

"Nope, its normal Minnie behavior," said Sirius. By now, professor McGonagall was exasperated by her former student's behavior.

**Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

"That never ends well," muttered Arthur Weasley.

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").**

"Learned, it? I'm pretty sure that he knew it even before he was born!" said one of the D.A.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"_**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**_

"I'm pretty sure owls don't take showers," said James. Both Sirius's exclaimed:

"It's an expression!" Everyone looked at them oddly.

"What? I took Muggle Studies just to piss of my parents. I paid attention so I could anger them even more. It was the only class I got an O in every year!" they said. There was a full one minute silence. Then the entire hall burst out laughing. Dumbledore then resumed:

"_**Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**_

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

"You really are daft Dursley," exclaimed all of the Weasley boys.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

As many times as she heard it, Lily still felt saddened. Sirius and Andromeda went up to her and gave her a hug. All of them knew what it was to be shunned from their family. Once they broke apart, Harry went up to her and said four simple words that made Lily realize the truth.

"She's not worth it." Dumbledore kept reading.

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"**

"_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"**Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… **_**her **_**crowd."**

"No really? I didn't know—ow woman, are you my girlfriend or what?!" Ron had been interrupted by Hermione hitting him. However, the last part of his statement put everyone silent. Then everyone from the present made uproar and congratulated them. Then Harry said, after everyone quieted down:

"Everyone, I win the bet of a total of-" he pulled out a note pad. "-750 galleons, 20 sickles and 1 knut. Everyone who bet, come up here, and I'll tell you how much you owe me." Everyone from the past and future wondered what happened. Hermione saw their expressions and explained: "Well you see, we all bet on when Ron and I would get together, if ever. We got together during the Final Battle, just as Harry predicted. Even the professors participated." Everyone was awestricken. After, the money collection was over, Dumbledore resumed.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"I happen to think it's a wonderful name," said Ginny. Harry smiled at her.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were **_**involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect **_**them**_**…**

**How very wrong he was.**

Everyone was quiet until now, until suddenly, Harry burst out laughing. He kept laughing so hard, many people were astounded. No one had ever seen him so happy and bubbly before. He quieted, down and people continued to stare until Dumbledore resumed again.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

"How did you do that professor?" asked Hermione. Before the professor could respond, Fred and George said "Magic!"

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt.**

"Dumbledore!" everyone yelled.

Dumbledore just chuckled at their enthusiasm.

**He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"Knew it!" Sirius Jr. cried.

"We all did," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "Besides, no one contradicted you anyway."

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

"Why Professor? Is there a little somthin' somthin' going on? The way that Minnie was so happy to see you also seems a bit suspicious, don't you think?" asked Sirius. He was then promptly smacked on the back of the head.

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter.**

Ron shared a grin with Harry and Hermione as he tapped the deluminator that's now in his pockets.

**He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness.**

"Wow, that's so cool, Professor!" Remus exclaimed.

"Thank you, Mr. Creevy," Dumbledore said, before going back to reading.

**Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"Imagine if it wasn't Minnie at all," Fred snickered.

"Yeah, awkward moment," George snorted.

Everyone in the hall laughed.

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Don't even think about it, Potter, Twins," Minerva said sternly, before the twins could do or say anything inappropriate again.

They pouted at her.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one.**

"Emerald?" cried both Sirius's.

"Why not red?" the older Sirius continued, frowning at Minerva.

"I happen to like green, thank you very much, Mr. Black," Minerva replied, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Traitor…" he muttered.

Minerva just ignored him.

**Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

All the pranksters laughed.

Minerva was still exasperated.

"You two are a bad influence on my brother," Victoire said to Fred II and James II, rolling her eyes, as she watched them snicker with Louis.

**"How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"Yeah, Minnie always sits so stiffly, so that's big clue in itself right there," the younger Sirius laughed.

Remus just sighed loudly and raised his eyes to the heavens. Minerva was glaring at the younger Sirius with her worst-of-the-worst glare, but he didn't seem at all bothered.

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

"Yeah, Professor, why are you there anyway?" Frank questioned.

"Why would there be a lot of celebrations in the first place though? What _has_ happened?" Lily asked the whole hall, but no one answered. They didn't know how to. How do you explain that it was their deaths that had happened?

"It will be explained, Ms. Evans," Dumbledore said gravely.

His tone only made the past worry more.

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no - even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls... shooting stars... Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent - I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"Sorry, Dedalus," Minerva said somberly. She was sad for her dead friend.

**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"So, whatever it is happens in about four years from our time?" Remus asked, as Dumbledore nodded to him in confirmation.

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

"He's gone?" Remus cried in disbelief.

"Amazing!" Sirius and James yelled.

"That's great news!" Frank said, with Lily and Alice nodding in agreement.

The past Order was celebrating too.

"He's not _really _gone then, is he?" Frank asked looking at their expressions. "That or something terrible also happened at the same time?"

"Both, actually," said Professor Sprout sadly.

The past teenagers felt their stomachs drop.

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"A _what__**?" **_Ron said.

**"A **_**what**_**?"**

"Ronniekins! You think like Professor McGonagall!" George exclaimed. Ron didn't know how to take this. Hermione just kissed him on the cheek and said, "Well I proud of you." This made the redhead blush.

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops.**

"Minerva, it is _always _the time for a lemon drop," Dumbledore said, interrupting his own reading. Minerva pretended she hadn't heard him.

**"As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone -"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name. All this 'You- Know-Who' nonsense - for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort." Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself," said Harry firmly. The D.A. rolled their eyes, Harry always kept telling that. Same with the future kids.

**"I know you haven't, said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring."But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**, was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have.**

"Only because you're too noble to use them," Snape said, rolling his eyes.

**"Only because you're too - well - **_**noble**_** to use them."**

Snape blinked. That was… weird.

"It is true though," Lupin said. "There are some magic that are best not meddled with. Very, very dark magic…"

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"Didn't need to know that, Professor!" Ron said with disgust in his face. Dumbledore merely chuckled again.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumors**_** that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying. About why he's disappeared. About what finally stopped him?"**

Everyone tensed at this. It was this part already…

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

"Of course I didn't believe it right away," Minerva said, her voice now pained. "I didn't _want_ to believe it…"

Many people from the present and future now looked teary.

The past teenagers just looked bewildered and scared. What the hell was going on?

**"What they're**_** saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow.**

James stiffened at this. That was where he lived. Remus and the younger Sirius turned to look at him fearfully.

**He went to find the Potters.**

Lily gasped loudly. Alice was starting to tremble.

"No, _no…_" breathed the younger Sirius. Remus shut his eyes tightly.

James was chalk white.

The people from the present and future were trying to fight their tears. Even if they already what was going to happen, it didn't make this any easier. Hermione clutched Harry's hand tightly in support. Harry was pale. Recounting his parents' death just after defeating Voldemort in a deadly battle was not a good combination…

**The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are - are - that they're **_**- dead**_**. "**

Silence throughout the hall. Then-

"NO!" the younger Sirius yelled, standing up and shaking all over.

Lily started sobbing, and James wrapped an arm around her, his own face with silent tears. Never mind him. But his Lily, dead? That was what James couldn't bear…

Tears were also flowing at Remus's still tightly shut eyes. Alice was sobbing in Frank's chest, who's face was grave. Snape was also shaking, though nobody but Dumbledore noticed.

The older Sirius had buried his face in his hands. Lupin was shaking and trembling. Tonks, who was also teary, was rubbing her hand up and down his arm, trying to soothe him.

There were no eyes in the hall that weren't wet at all.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

**"Lily and James... I can't believe it... I didn't want to believe it... Oh, Albus..."**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know... I know..." he said heavily.**

"Didn't know you care so much, Professor," James attempted to joke. "And you kept denying that you absolutely loved me…"

"I-I was talking more about Ms. Evans, not you, Potter," Minerva said, trying to joke back with him, but the smile on her lips faltering.

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.**

"No!" Lily screamed, paling even more. James felt helpless, he couldn't protect his own son!

"Bastard!" the younger Sirius and Remus snarled.

"It's fine, guys," Harry said in a strained voice, smiling reassuringly at them weakly. "I'm here, I'm alive."

**But - he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke - and that's why he's gone."**

"WOW!" cried everyone from 1977.

"You defeated Voldy, Prongslet!" the younger Sirius said in awe.

The twins and Ron were snickered at the nickname 'Prongslet'.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's - it's**_** true**_**?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done... all the people he's killed... he couldn't kill a little boy. It's just astounding... of all the things to stop him... but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

**"We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

_You knew, _Harry thought. _You knew, even then, Professor._ But he couldn't fault Dumbledore for that. Their eyes met, and Harry smiled at him, indicating he understood Dumbledore's reasons.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why **_**you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"What, no!" Lily cried. "Professor, you can't! Tuney hates me, she won't love Harry!"

**"You don't mean - you can't mean the people who live here." cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore - you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"Yes, you tell him, Professor! Make Professor Dumbledore see sense!" Lily pleaded with the book.

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"You can't really explain something like that in a letter, Dumbledore," Molly frowned.

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter. These people will never understand him! He'll be famous - a legend - I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future - there will be books written about Harry - every child in our world will know his name!"**

**"Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it."**

"Not that I was actually ever ready to take it," Harry said. His fame was still disconcerting, and he still hated it.

"You won't be getting used to it the future either, Dad," Albus said. "And it will only get worse."

Harry winced. Of course, how could he have forgotten. He killed Voldemort, his fame will only get bigger. Ugh.

Remus looked thoughtful. "Dumbledore seems to have a point though. He's right to be worried about that, seeing as how big-headed Harry's father is…"

"HEY!"

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes - yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore." She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"You better not have, Professor!" said Lily warningly.

"Of course not, Ms. Evans," Dumbledore was quick to pacify her. He didn't want the particular redhead angry at him. Lily's temper can send even him running for the mountains.

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

**"You think it - **_**wise**_** - to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life," Harry said firmly. Hagrid beamed at him.

"My apologies, Hagrid," said Minerva.

"It's nuttin', Professor," said Hagrid, waving off the apology.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"Harry, you think like Dumbledore!" the Weasley twins yelled.

"Well, he is Harry's mentor," said Ginny quietly.

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to - what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of aheadlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky - and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Cool!" said a lot of the students. The older Sirius was grinning broadly to himself.

"I want one!" the younger Sirius whined. Remus rolled his eyes. The day Sirius got a flying motorcycle was the day the sky would no longer be one bit safe.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"Hagrid!" the students cheered. Hagrid beamed at them.

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sit," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"Me?" said the younger Sirius, shocked. "YES! I own a flying motorcycle in the future."

Lily shook her head as Remus muttered, "Remind me never to ride an airplane in the future, then."

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir - house was almost destroyed,**

Lily and James bowed their heads sadly at this.

**but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"Aww!" said most of the females in the room.

The males meanwhile snickered at the red-faced Harry.

**"Is that where -?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

"Didn't need to know that as well," muttered Ron.

**Well - give him here, Hagrid - we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I - could I say good-bye to him, sir." asked Hagrid. He bent hisgreat, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog**.

"Hey!" the two Sirius's cried, offended.

The ones who didn't know about their Animagus form looked oddly at them, while the rest just laughed.

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it - Lily an' James dead - an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles -"**

Everyone looked sad again at this.

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"That's not good," said Lupin, frowning.

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall - Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

"I never did get it back," the older Sirius sighed.

"What, why?" the younger Sirius demanded.

No one knew how to answer him. Most people in the hall now knew he was innocent. But still you just can't tell someone he will spend 12 years in Azkaban. Even more so that he was falsely imprisoned.

"Never mind for now," the older Sirius finally answered his younger self, who frowned.

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

"Not a word, anyone!" yelled McGonagall.

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"I needed that luck," Harry muttered, thinking of his life with the Dursleys.

"I guess Dumbledore didn't know back then that you have the most rotten luck, huh?" Ron joked, trying to cheer up Harry.

Harry pushed him playfully. Ron grinned, knowing he succeeded.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles,**

"Ouch," winced Lily and Snape, knowing how horrible that sound was.

**nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley.** **He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter - the boy who lived!"**

Harry frowned at this. They celebrate his defeat of the Dark Lord as a baby, but seem to forget that he lost parents that night as well and was off to live with his muggle relatives.

"Well, that's the end of the first chapter," Dumbledore said. "Who would like to read next?"

"I will, Professor," Hermione said immediately. Many people snickered, that was _so_ Hermione. She just glared at them.

"Here you are, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore said, smiling as he hand her the book

Hermione turned to the right page and began to read.

**A/N 2: After possibly the longest file on my computer this chapter ends. Please Review. As before here is the Wattpad just in case: /Potterthekid.**


	4. The Vanishing Glass

"**Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass**,"

"Oh, Harry, is this your first accidental magic?" asked Lily II.

"No. But it was the worst," he responded. This resulted in more awkward looks.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, **

This resulted in growls from Minerva.

**But Privet Drive had hardly changed at all.**

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **

"Fateful? That's definitely not a word. He must really hate owls to say that," said Rose.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets –**

Finally laughter resounded in the hall from this comment.

**But Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.**

"He seems to be really spoiled," said Molly and Arthur. Such treatment was never given to any of their children.

**The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"WHAT!" yelled many of the people in the Hall.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

"I feel your pain, honey. I had to deal with that too," said Lily. Harry nodded meekly. He realized that soon, his entire home life would be displayed. It was not a good feeling.

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Not a kind feeling is it Harrykins?"

"Yes, I think our little baby brother's family may need a bit of"

"Punishment"

"Weasley! Weasley! Don't even try! The authorities won't protect you," said McGonagall.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

**"Up!" she screeched.**

"Seriously, woman! Let the scrawny git sleep!" yelled Ron.

"Thanks, mate. Wait what?" yelled Harry.

"Ah, Prongslet, your father was just like that. Still is," responded the younger Sirius.

"Yeah son. Wait. Paddy you-"James responded.

**Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Wow Harry," started Hermione.

"You have amazing memory," finished Remus.

"What's the big deal? That was only five minutes ago!" said the younger Sirius. The other marauders, even his older self, face palmed.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"THEY MADE YOU COOK AT AGE ELEVEN?" yelled Molly, Lily, and Minerva.

"No. Harry had to do that earlier too, right?" asked Hermione.

"Since I could reach the stove," he responded quietly. Hermione hurried up before any other reactions could be seen.

**Harry groaned.**

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"Rude, rude people, wrecking the wonder boy's sleep." Said Snape.

**"Nothing, nothing..."**

**Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten?**

"The same way you forgot the pronunciation of Wingardium Leviosa," said Hermione.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on.**

**Harry was used to spiders,**

Ron shuddered.

**Because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,** **and that was where he slept.**

There was a silence for a few minutes. Harry thought that this was much better than—

"You ruddy-"

"Can we blow them up now?"

"Dursl'y yeh old prune! You were a bleedin' mongrel to him!"

"ALBUS!"

"WHY PETUNIA!"

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR HURTING MY GOSON!" So after many such outbursts, Hermione continued reading.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

"How many did you get every year Potter, seven hundred?" asked Snape. This was followed by a loud resounding SLAP.

"How _dare_ you Severus? We just found out he slept in a closet! What the bloody _hell_ is wrong with you?" yelled Lily. This was followed by cheering from everyone.

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

"Spoiled brat," muttered Molly.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise**

Cue laughter.

**- unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"Guess who?" said Fred.

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry,**

"No, really?" said George.

**But he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"Which is why he's an awesome seeker!" said James II.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard,**

More growls.

**but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"Just like James. A specky scrawny git," said Sirus.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"He's a baby whale!" yelled Hugo.

**Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.**

"Ahh, Jamie-boy, he's you with flower's eyes," said Sirius Jr.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

"This is why you never got hurt too bad fighting Death Eaters," whispered Ron.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

Almost all who knew Harry laughed.

"You actually liked it?" asked Hermione.

"It was the one thing that connected me to my parents, ok?" responded Harry.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.**

**"And don't ask questions."**

_**Don't ask questions**_**- that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"Then how will you learn?" asked many Ravenclaws.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

**"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Are they normal at all?" asked Rose.

"Not then they weren't," said Harry.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

"Dat Potter hair, can't live with it, can't live without it," said all Potter men.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel –**

This resulted in laughter from the Twins and Harry.

**Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

"Who knew you had such humor?" said Ron.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"Straight to the ground." Said James.

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Spoiled Brat!"

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, its here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another****two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin?**_**Two**_**more presents. Is that all right''**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."**

"Merlin! Can't even count!" yelled Remus.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

**"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"Who wants to be like you?" asked McGonagall.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

Arthur Weasley seemed like he was going too exploded with happiness, hearing about so many muggle artifacts. Everyone else was confused.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg has broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"You talk like he's a dog!" exclaimed Molly.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away.**

"She actually saved my life… I miss her," whispered Harry to his friends.

**Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg,**

"I really should have"

**But it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"Well… we might be seeing her again." The trio laughed.

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Cue muttering.

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?"**

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"She was annoying" commented Lily.

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"Fat chance," said George.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"She always looked like that," said everyone who had seen her.

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"Maybe…" started the Twins.

"Absolutely not," yelled everyone.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car..."**

**"That car's new; he's not sitting in it alone..." **

"Like a dog," said Victoire.

"Hey!" yelled the Siriuses.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Spoiled brat…"

**"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"Baby"

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

"But at least he wasn't like a certain other rat we know…" said the older Marauders.

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

Lily looked sad again at this. Harry would have been to the zoo before much sooner than that if only she and James were still alive.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right upclose to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

Growls echoed in the hall once more.

"If that thing does that, I swear- I will… Grr," James snarled.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly".**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

Harry just ignored the pitying looks that were sent to him.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Your accidental magic," Hermione said, interrupting her own reading. Then she sighed, "All the accidental magic happening around me made it hard for me to fit in too."

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all,** **had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

James II looked horrified at this.

His grandfather was quick to reassure him. "Don't worry, not even that can beat our hair!" James told him proudly. James II grinned at this.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry,** **who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

"They couldn't even be bothered to buy you decent clothing," Bill frowned. True, they rarely got new clothes when they were younger too. But that was because their parents didn't have the money.

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off**

James grinned at James II in a way that clearly said '_See I told you so!'._James II grinned back at him.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) –**

"Ugh!" the girls in the hall shuddered.

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

"How did you even get up there?" Edgar said, his eyes wide with surprise.

"You flew?" Severus said to Harry.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual** **when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"Harry, even you aren't that skinny!" Fred laughed.

"Oh, I don't know, Fred. Sometimes sticks get carried away by strong winds too, right?" George smirked.

"True…"

Harry rolled his eyes at them.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong.**

"You just had to jinx it, didn't you?" Hermione groaned.

"Jinx? But Harry doesn't know any magic yet then, did he?" Ron asked, confused.

"No, no. It's a muggle expression," Hermione explained, her bad mood finally gone. For now. "It means… it's like you're tempting fate."

"Oh," said Ron. Then he snorted, "You must be very at "jinxing" by now then, Harry. A real expert."

"Stuff it," Harry told him, pushing him playfully, while his parents looked a bit worried. What more had Harry done, apart from surviving the Killing Curse as a baby?

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

"You barely got to go anywhere when you were a kid, Dad," Albus frowned. "How come you're so against it when we suggest we go camping then?"

"NO CAMPING!" Harry, Ron and Hermione yelled together, their faces pale and their eyes wide as saucers.

People stared at them, especially the ones from the past and future that had no idea at all what they've been doing and just gone through.

"Yeah, that's your exact reactions in the future too as well," Rose said, wondering if they were going to learn why her parents and uncle were so against camping.

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

**"... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"HARRY!" Many cried in exasperation at Harry's statement that showed that he didn't connect his brain to his mouth before speaking.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"Yes they do!" shouted the kids, teenagers.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"**It wasn't bad, either," Harry thought,** **licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"I knew it," Hermione muttered exasperatedly.

"Harry's rotten luck!" Ron chortled.

Harry scowled at them.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house.**

_Well, let's see how people will make of my being a Parselmouth,_Harry thought to himself dryly.

**It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

"Because your life's so interesting," Fred II scoffed.

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself - no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

_**It winked.**_

"Wha-?" said the people who didn't know that Harry was a Parselmouth.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"No, don't encourage it, Harry!" the younger Sirius cried in horror. This was_bad!_

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

_**"I get that all the time."**_

There was great deal of muttering at this.

"You're a _Parselmouth?"_ James said to Harry disbelievingly. "But no one in my family ever was one! And Lily's muggle-born so you couldn't have gotten it from her!"

"It will be explained, it doesn't really matter," Harry said blankly. His father was acting the way Harry feared he would.

"Doesn't really matter? Harry, Parseltongue is dark! Only dark wizards use it!"

"It doesn't mean that just because dark wizards use it, Parseltongue's automatically bad as well," Severus butted in.

"Of course you would think that, Snivellus!"

"James!" Lily shouted. The arrogant and prejudiced side of James was coming out again.

"It doesn't matter what kind of ability a wizard has, Mr. Potter. It doesn't dictate what they are. What's more important is how they use it," Dumbledore said.

Everyone was silent for a while.

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying." The snake nodded vigorously.**

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil."**

"Only you, Harry. Only you will have a conversation with a snake about _Brazil_ and not find anything odd about it. And you didn't even know about magic yet," Ron joked, trying to lift the tension _and_Harry's mood at the same time.

Harry smiled weakly at him. "It was just nice to have someone to talk to that didn't yell in reply or flinch at the sight of you."

That wasn't exactly the effect that Ron desired.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

"Shut up, you little _rat,_" the older Sirius snarled.

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened –**

"What? What?" Colin said eagerly.

"Calm down and let Hermione read, Colin!" Angelina said.

**one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

Everyone was laughing again.

"Nice one, Harry!" Ron high-fived him. Hermione looked torn between disapproval and amusement.

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."**

"At least the snake was polite," James said, trying and somehow managing to make a joke of it, just to make his son feel better and show him he regretted what he had said before.

Harry hesitated at first, but then gave him a small smile in the end.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Well it vanished, so into non-being, which is to say everything," Harry said, remembering the question of the knocker of the Ravenclaw common room door to Amycus Carrow.

Everyone stared at him.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death.**

"Drama queens," Remus muttered.

**But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

This angered people again.

"That's child abuse!" Minerva shouted, ready to blow the Dursleys to smitherins. Nobody treated one of her beloved lions like that!

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"No wonder you never get caught when you sneak out," Snape said coolly. "You're well-practiced even before you came here."

"I had to eat somehow, Professor," Harry shrugged.

"And your excuse now that you aren't starved anymore at Hogwarts?"

"I had to save the school and/or stop Voldemort from returning. Those were really the only times I snuck out at all."

Those from the past looked downright alarmed at Harry's words. What did he mean _save the school and stop Voldemort from returning?_

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash.**

"We didn't die in a car crash," James cried, frowning along with several others at this lie the Dursleys had fed Harry.

**He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

"That's because there was _no_car crash," Minerva hissed.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burn- ing pain on his forehead.**

Stares were shot in Harry's direction again.

"You remembered that?" Hermione whispered, horrified. "Even before…?"

Harry knew she meant before he heard his mother's last moments because of the dementors. "Yeah," he said dully.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

Lily and James looked pained at this.

"You really had no idea about us, did you?" Lily said tearfully.

Harry shook his head.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

The older Sirius was starting to actually regret going after Pettigrew. If he hadn't acted rashly and talked to Dumbledore and the Ministry first, then he might have been able to explain everything and get custody of Harry. That way he wouldn't have suffered with the Dursleys. He would still have wanted Pettigrew dead even then, but Harry should have been his priority.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

Dedalus looked sheepish as people looked at him, and his hat.

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"They're just confusing Harry and making him think he going crazy!" Hermione protested.

"You mean he's not crazy?" Ron chortled. Harry scowled at him playfully while Hermione shot him a dirty look.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

Everyone looked sadly at Harry again. Harry just ignored them.

"That's the end of the chapter," Hermione sighed, closing book. "Who wants to read next?"

"I will, Ms. Granger," Minerva said. Hopefully this next chapter is better…

**A/N: Please Read and review!**


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